Nuclear modification of high transverse momentum particle production in p+A collisions at RHIC and LHC

TL;DR

This paper models the nuclear modification of high transverse momentum particle production in p+A collisions at RHIC and LHC, combining perturbative QCD with cold nuclear matter effects to match experimental data and make predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive theoretical framework that includes multiple cold nuclear matter effects to describe particle production in p+A collisions.

Findings

The model successfully describes RHIC d+Au data.

Predictions for LHC p+Pb collisions are provided.

The approach aids in understanding cold nuclear matter effects.

Abstract

We present results and predictions for the nuclear modification of the differential cross sections for inclusive light hadron and prompt photon production in minimum bias d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV and minimum bias p+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 5$ TeV at RHIC and LHC, respectively. Our calculations combine the leading order perturbative QCD formalism with cold nuclear matter effects that arise from the elastic, inelastic and coherent multiple scattering of partons in large nuclei. We find that a theoretical approach that includes the isospin effect, Cronin effect, cold nuclear matter energy loss and dynamical shadowing can describe the RHIC d+Au data rather well. The LHC p+Pb predictions will soon be confronted by new experimental results to help clarify the magnitude and origin of cold nuclear matter effects and facilitate precision dense QCD matter tomography.